BOTKIN, Claude Earl

Arvin Tiller (Arvin CA) Wednesday, May 5, 1982, p 1 Potato Pioneer Botkin Passes Noted farmer and potato grower in Arvin and Kern County, Claude E. Botkin, died on April 27 in a Bakersfield Convalescent Hospital. Funeral services were held on Friday, April 30 with interment in the Arvin District Cemetery. Claude Earl Botkin was born on June 15, 1901, in Ellington, Missouri. He was the son and one of seven children of William Henry and Cynthia Elizabeth Carter Botkin. William H. Botkin was a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and Cynthia Carter Botkin was a native of Carter County, Missouri. Carter County Missouri and Carter County Kentucky are both named for Claude's grandfather, Frank Carter. In 1909, the family moved to Arizona where Claude attended grade and high school at Tempe, Arizona. In 1918 he joined an older brother in Superior, Arizona working as a mechanic. Later, with his brother's help, he operated a Ford Agency. Leaving the Ford Agency in 1923, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where for several years, he attended extension classes at the University of Southern California in mathematics, engineering and economics. He began working for an oil company, and when the oil company went into receivership in 1932, he accepted employment with an engineering firm which brought him to Kern County, where he observed the Kern County farmers growing potatoes and cotton. He decided in 1932 to become a farmer, and grow potatoes and cotton and he has been at it ever since. His first farming venture was on land that he had leased in the Poso Creek area while with Climax Engineering. Leaving Climax Engineering in 1936, he moved to Arvin and started farming full time on land that he leased there. He saw the need for improvement of the potato and so started many years of study and experiment which led to close association with men doing potato research and to the potato breeding projects. Mr. Botkin had the greatest respect for these potato specialists but tried out his own ideas and beliefs on his farm. Over the years, he purchased land in the Arvin area, which together with land that he leased comprised a sizable farming operation. In his thirst for knowledge about growing potatoes, he became a member of the Potato Association of America and has been a faithful member for many years. He was a member of the Kern County Potato Association since its inception in 1944. He served as the temporary president during the organizational period and was its first elected president. The Kern County Potato Association was later changed and is now the California Potato Growers Association. He also was a member and chairman of the Kern County Potato Pro-Rate Committee; member of the Society of Automotive Engineers; a member of the Common Wealth Club of California; a life member of Save-The-Redwoods League; a member of the USDA Research and Marketing Act Potato Advisory Committee; and a member of the Potato Chip Institute International. He was one of the three original advocators who started the National Potato Utilization Conference. Botkin planted the first Kennebec seed crop in Tehachapi in 1950 and from that time on supplied Kennebecs to seed growers and chippers. He ran many varietal trials with potatoes on his farm. In 1953, he developed and built machinery to completely mechanize and bulk handle his potato operation. Through the use of pallet boxes, fork lifts and harvesters, etc., he had a completely mechanized potato operation. In 1954, he built a 160-car potato storage for chip potatoes with mechanically controlled temperature and humidity instruments. He had been one of the foremost advocates of developing information on handling and management of storage for higher quality seed. In recognition of his contributions to the potato industry, the Potato Association of America elected Botkin to an Honorary Life Membership at their annual meeting in Mexico City on the 2nd of August, 1965. He was the first Californian to be so honored by this association. Botkin also received a Certificate of Recognition from the Arvin Chamber of Commerce. Botkin was a 32nd degree Mason and belonged to both the Ray Lodge in Arizona and the Arvin Lodge Number 738 of which he is a charter member. He was also a Life Member of the Scottish Rite in the Los Angeles Consistory. In Superior, Arizona, on June 9, 1923, Claude E. Botkin married the former Sabrey Louis Collins, an Arizona school teacher and a native of Briscoe County, Texas. She is presently residing in a Bakersfield Convalescent Hospital.